Flexibility is key factor for successful journeys

Every year in the days leading up to the Spring Festival, China is the scene of the world's largest human migration.

Thomas Lehmann, a development coordinator at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, will join the rush on Jan 27, Lunar New Year's Eve. He will take a train from Beijing to Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in Northeast China, reputedly the coldest city in the country.

A friend of the 27-year-old reserved the tickets for him online. "All I needed to provide was my passport number and date of birth," the United States national said. However, unlike Chinese citizens, who can collect reserved tickets from machines at stations, Lehmann will have to collect his tickets from a booking window.